The present invention relates to radio receivers, and particularly to a buffer system for radio receivers. The invention is especially useful with respect to the radio receiver and buffer system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,126,982, and is therefore described below with respect to this application.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,126,982 describes a buffer system for a radio receiver which controls the radio receiver to permit the listener to play back information which had been previously broadcasted but possibly not completely registered by the listener. For this purpose, the buffer system comprises an analog-to-digital converter for converting to digital form the analog signals outputted by the processing (e.g., demodulater) circuit, a digital cyclic storage device connected to the processing circuit for continuously storing in digital form the audio signals last outputted thereby over a predetermined time interval, and a control circuit including a mode selector effective to select either (a) a Normal-Listening Mode, wherein the audio circuit is connected to receive the audio signals from the processing circuit in a real-time manner while the cyclic storage device continuously stores the audio signals last outputted by the processing circuit over a predetermined time interval, or (b) at least one other mode wherein the audio circuit is connected to receive the signals previously stored in the cyclic storage device.
In one described embodiment, the at least one other mode is a Delayed-Listening Mode, wherein the audio circuit is connected to receive the audio signals in a delayed-time manner from the processing circuit via the cyclic storage device.
In a second described embodiment, the buffer system includes a further storage device capable of storing all the information stored in the cyclic storage device during the predetermined time interval; also, the mentioned at least one other mode includes: (a) a Freeze Mode, wherein the cyclic storage device is connected to the further storage device to transfer its contents at that instant to a further storage device while the cyclic storage device continues to store the audio signals; or (b) a Playback Mode, wherein the audio circuit is connected to the further storage device to be fed the contents of the further storage device.
Such a buffer assembly thus permits the listener normally to hear the radio broadcast in a continuous manner, but whenever it is desired to rehear information which was previously broadcasted, this may be done by reading-out the contents of the cyclic storage device stored during the time interval corresponding to that in which the missed information was broadcasted.